International Cesarean Awareness Network
Education, Support, & Advocacy for Birth Justice & Healing
Did you attend the 2011 ICAN Conference in St. Louis this past weekend? If so, we’d like to hear from you!
Use the comments section here to share your favorite quotes, moments, images, and any personal reflections you have from the conference. If you’d like to write a longer reflection to post as a stand-alone blog entry, please email blog@ican-online.org
Photos also welcome! We look forward to hearing from you.
Amy Swagman is a mother, doula, and fine artist in Denver, CO. For the month of April in honor of Cesarean Awareness Month she will be donating 10% of all sales to ICAN, plus 20% of sales from her pieces on cesarean, healing, and VBAC.
Amy will also be speaking on birth art and activism at the ICAN conference April 7-10 along with Alahna Roach, Art Therapist. Register for the conference today and sign up for Amy and Alahna’s breakout session, “A Thousand Words” where we will discuss creating and facilitating birth art as well as using it as activism to change our current birth climate.
Amy started making mandalas during her pregnancy with her third daughter to meditate, practice relaxation, and process difficult emotions tied to her upcoming birth. By creating a mandala almost every day she helped prepare for, and ultimately create, the beautiful and gentle home birth she desired. She loves encouraging everyone she meets to tap into their creativity and value the process of creating while silencing their inner critic. Through her artwork she hopes to honor all mothers and the various ways they birth and love their children. Find out more about Amy and her work at www.themandalajourney.com or http://www.facebook.com/mandalajourney.
If you are going to ICAN’s 2011 conference in St. Louis, don’t forget you can pre-order the speakers books or Cesarean Voices. You must pay by paypal and pick it up at the conference.
Check it out!
The complete list of speakers has been announced for the ICAN Conference 2011: Your Gateway to a Better Birth, being held April 8 – 10 in St Louis, MO. Please see the conference website for the full listing.
This year’s conference speakers are among the most recognized, respected and innovative names in the birthing community! Speakers include Henci Goer, Pam England, Gail Tully, Isa Herrera, and Dr. George Macones, PLUS popular bloggers and respected ICAN personalities from across the nation are joining the three day conference.
Could the ICAN Conference be relevant to you? With the recent news that the cesarean rate hit a record high of 32.9 percent in 2009, even women without a prior cesarean and those with prior vaginal births are being affected. Now is the time to highlight ICAN’s core values of prevention, recovery and advocacy. The ICAN Conference will be fun, educational and energizing!
The details of speakers’ topics and sessions are currently being finalized and will be available SOON! While you wait, take advantage of the early bird registration discount of $99 for current ICAN subscribers and $150 for non-subscribers! Register now! The deadline for early bird registration is February 1, 2011! Those who register now will receive an email to confirm their session choices when those details are available. If you’re thinking about becoming an ICAN subscriber to get the best discount to attend the Conference- now is the perfect time! Consider subscribing with your local ICAN chapter and that way a portion of your money will help families in YOUR community! To find a chapter near you click here.
To keep up with all the latest ICAN Conference details visit the conference website.We also have a Facebook page for updates about the conference, a Facebook event page, and a Yahoo group.
Registration for ICAN’s 2011 conference is now OPEN at http://conference.ican-online.org/registration.htm
Join us in St. Louis, MO for ICAN’s Gateway to a Better Birth conference, April 8-10, 2011. Early Bird Registration is only $99 for a limited time!
Speakers include Henci Goer, Pam England, Isa Herrera and Dr. George Macones.
This is a fantastic opportunity to learn, heal, network and get energized about changing the state of birth today.
See you in St. Louis!!!